john harwood has some of the details in washington. good morning, john. >> morning, carl. the president is on this summer long tour to try to stress his vision of a middle class out economy, and a core part of that is trying to deal with the core inflation of college costs. so many students burdened by debt, and the president is trying to figure out not just ways to give them more aid, but to get colleges to lower the costs. he's in buffalo because they have been a leader in the pay for performance steps the president wants to highlight. the plan he's outlining essentially has three parts. one is that the federal government would create a new rating system for colleges to show how much they cost, make it more transparent, and also show their performance in terms of graduation rates, the kinds of jobs they place students in. secondly, and this would require congressional action, would be tying federal student aid, about $150 billion every year, to the performance of those colleges. students could still pick whatever college they want, but there would be more aid for people